Office of the Historian

280. Message From the President’s Assistant for National Security Affairs (Kissinger) to the Ambassador to Germany (Rush)1

Washington, August 7, 1971.

Thank you for your cable.2 I have put the issue of the Consulate General into interdepartmental machinery. Your instructions will probably be to get some improvement in the other sections and to use the Consulate General only as a last resort. Since most of the improvements are already agreed to, this should not be too onerous. It does suggest leaving the Consulate General until last. I shall stay on top of the negotiations and try to prevent too much interference. If there are any problems, back channel me immediately.

I am concerned about the access section. What does the phrase quote inspection procedures may be restricted to the inspection seals unquote mean? The same problem reappears throughout this section and only there. Why is it not quote will be restricted unquote? Does this leave an unnecessary ambiguity? Can you reassure me on this?

Congratulations on a delicate job skillfully carried out.

Warm regards.

  1. Source: National Archives, Nixon Presidential Materials, NSC Files, Kissinger Office Files, Box 59, Country Files, Europe, Ambassador Rush, Berlin, Vol. 2. Top Secret; Sensitive; Exclusively Eyes Only. The message was sent through the special Navy channel in Frankfurt; no time of transmission or receipt appears on the message.↩
  2. Document 277.↩